Let's see: writings on art from the New Yorker

Distinguished critic at The New Yorker since 1998, Peter Schjeldahl has been described as America's most influential writer on art. Blessed with an unerring eye, he tackles a myriad of subjects with wit, poetry, and perspicacity, examining and questioning the art before him while reveling in the power and beauty of language. His writing springs from a desire to be understood by all readers, and a determination to help them engage with art of every kind.

Covering subjects drawn from a broad canvas of the history of art-from ancient Greece, Mexico, and Byzantium, through Raphael, Rubens, and Rembrandt, to Bruce Nauman, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and John Currin-the writings collected here seek out with precision and economy the essence of the individual artist or work under discussion, but they never lose sight of the bigger picture: What is beauty? What does it mean to be an American artist? What can the art we produce and admire tell us about ourselves?

With an imaginative introduction-twenty questions, each one posed to Schjeldahl by a different artist or writer-this collection will appeal to anyone who considers the experience of art, and of writing on art, an invitation to a voyage.

Coverage includes: . large-scale exhibitions at leading institutions around the world . shows at private galleries . profiles of prominent members of the art world . personal accounts of time spent with artists . the influences of museum spaces on our experience of art

From inside the book

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Page 10I wonder if you could comment on the relationship between two recent statements
— "A test of true art is a real subject " (9/11/o6) and the lament in your review
ofBrice Marden (11/ 6/o6) that he "offers something that is increasingly rare in art
...

Page 160BRICE MARDEN _l_t's hard to look at paintings," Brice Marden once said. "You
have to be able to bring all sorts of things together in your mind, your imagination,
in your whole body." Good paintings make the exercise worth the trouble.

Page 162a factor, but Marden maintains a conservative loyalty to unified composition, as
Twombly does not.) This led to pale-colored paintings of linear networks,
irregular but tensile (as if lightly spring-loaded), which he made in a fluid
turpentine-cut ...

About the author (2008)

Peter Schjeldahl is art critic for the Village Voice and contributing editor for "Art in America. "MaLin Wilson is an art critic, editor, and independent curator working in New Mexico. Robert Storr, an artist and writer, is currently a curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.